Dual power (leftist theory)

Dual power is a concept in the theory and practice of leftist politics, proposed in different forms by communists and anarchists. The communist conception of dual power, advanced by Vladimir Lenin to describe the division of power during the Russian Revolution, described the soviets of workers and soldiers as an incipient state whose task was to remove and replace the formal government. This notion has informed the strategies of subsequent communist-led revolutions, including the Chinese Revolution led by Mao.

The anarchist conception envisions the steady creation of mechanisms of self-management separate from the state apparatus. This strategy aims to create a libertarian socialist economy and polity by means of incrementally establishing and then networking institutions of direct participatory democracy to contest the existing power structures of state-capitalism. Dual power strategy was advocated by anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in 1851: "Beneath the governmental machinery, in the shadow of political institutions, out of the sight of statemen and priests, society is producing its own organism, slowly and silently; and constructing a new order, the expression of its vitality and autonomy." For some anarchists and libertarian socialists, this does not necessarily mean disengagement with existing institutions; for example, Yates McKee describes a dual power approach as "forging alliances and supporting demands on existing institutions — elected officials, public agencies, universities, workplaces, banks, corporations, museums — while at the same time developing self-organized counter-institutions." In this context, the strategy itself is sometimes also referred to as "counterpower" to differentiate it from the term's Leninist origins.

With the growth of the Zapatista movement, the system of local governance has been elaborated somewhat. Among the officials selected from each assembly, there are now commissioners for health and education, as well as a representative to a Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee (CCRI). The commissioners meet and coordinate with their peers on a regional basis, while there are four CCRIs, one for each language group in the area. The EZLN is subordinate to their decisions. This has fostered cooperation between community members and the EZLN, since "when a decision is made by the CCRI, it’s a decision based on consensus. It’s based on the agreement of dozens of families."

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